The objective of the Baylor Mentored Clinical Investigator Award (MCIA) is to provide didactic structure and mentoring for physician scientists, who are committed to academic careers in patient-oriented research. The proposed program provides: 1) well established, peer review funded, clinical investigators with a track record of mentoring; 2) excellent research resources, programs and facilities; 3) educational support in the area of study design, statistics, molecular biology, and/or other cognates; 4) assurance of an appropriate and successful mentor match from the beginning; and 5) development of research and training program of the scholar. This award will ensure success in training physician-scientists conducting cutting-edge patient oriented research by: 1) facilitating the ongoing development of individual didactic and research training programs for scholars; and 2) providing much needed salary and research support to protect time for their individual research and educational efforts. The proposed program offers Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in clinical investigation through the Baylor Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and Clinical Scientist Training Program (CSTP). Scholars will develop a 3 to 5-page research proposal with their mentors as part of their applications to the program. All applications will be reviewed by a Program Advisory Committee, selected from the overall mentoring faculty, and the Graduate School Admissions Committee. The educational support will be derived from the: 1) curriculum specifically developed for the trainees of the Baylor CSTP; 2) the clinical and basic science curricula at Baylor; 3) courses at affiliate institutions such as UT-School of Public Health; and 4) CSTP seminar series. The program has 45 clinical investigators as model mentors. All model mentors have active research programs and significant experience in mentoring physician-scientists. The Clinical Research Curriculum Award (K-30) provides resources for the curriculum in clinical research (CSTP). The CSTP (K30) provides no salary support for the scholars in the program. The scholars in the CSTP program, and other fellows and junior faculty at Baylor, committed to clinical research careers will be the primary beneficiaries of this program. Over the last two yrs, the CSTP has accepted 20 scholars (2 in the Ph.D. program, eight in the M.S. program and 10 in the Certificate of Added Qualification program) from a broad spectrum of clinical disciplines. The funding of this program is crucial to the success in training academic physicians with independent peer reviewed research funding.